


Frenemies in Disguise

by Only_1_Truth



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Aliens, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Complete, Enemies to Friends, Hux is So Done, Hux is a secret badass, Hux is just a captain and he's got a new Jedi on his ship, Kylo is a Jedi-in-training, Kylo is secretly protective, M/M, Mission Fic, Misuse of the Force, Pre-Relationship, Prequel, Telepathy, Tentacles get involved, kylo is a brat, they hate each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-15 18:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14795579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only_1_Truth/pseuds/Only_1_Truth
Summary: Captain Hux was doing well for himself: rising in the ranks, captain of his own ship.  Even favored by the Supreme Leader.  Everything goes a bit sideways, though, when that 'favor' results in Hux being asked to babysit the First Orders Jedi golden-boy - and 'being asked' really means 'being forced to even though Hux would rather eject Kylo Ren out an airlock than have to deal with his attitude.'And all of that is before they're sent to negotiate safe passage through alien space with a species that apparently fetishizes red hair.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually my first foray into this fandom, so I'll say in advance that there's not a lot of canon in this - I've even tweaked how the Force is used a bit, so if you're a die-hard for canonical accuracy, you might want to cover your eyes now.

Snoke’s orders had been, admittedly, vague: “Watch him as his power grows.  Reign him in if necessary.”  The orders had been to one Captain Hux, regarding a certain young Jedi, Kylo Ren.  The captain had been rather chuffed at the responsibility being handed to him, because surely being trusted with one of Supreme Leader Snoke’s finest human weapons was a sign that Hux was moving up in the Order?

Wrong.  Snoke should have just said, “Babysit the Jedi for me while he goes through his teething stage.”

Captain of the ship _Thunderkite_ at the time, Hux’s ego preened at his new responsibility for exactly one day - by the end of said day, he wanted to string Kylo Ren up by his balls and/or eject him into space.  This was _not_ what Hux had signed up for.  Hux liked order like most humanoid species liked air, and while his ship was far smaller than what he aspired to command, it had nonetheless been a fine-tuned machine of efficiency.  While it wasn’t on the scale he wanted, the _Thunderkite_ was nonetheless an example of the kind of ship Hux was capable of running - and Kylo Ren was like a comet tearing through it all.  The Jedi was a menace.  The antithesis of order.  Within a week, Hux had had three separate breakdowns, and the only thing that kept him from murdering his newest crewmember was the fact that the Supreme Leader would probably kill him - or worse, demote him - if his precious Jedi was damaged.  

One would think that meditation would mellow a person, but Ren seemed to do less meditating, more Force practice.  This on its own might have been manageable - like a contained explosion - had not Ren also had a reckless temper about him.  Hux, who was himself possessed of a Freon-cold sort of personality, honestly couldn’t compute it all for the first few days.  Then, once he understood that Ren was as much fire as Hux was ice, the captain decided that he unreservedly hated it.  Hux had been saddled with an inferno of a person, and had been banned from so much as dowsing him with water.

Well.  

Not entirely.

When it reached the point that Hux was concerned about Kylo ruining entire missions with his habit of throwing Force-tantrums, Hux finally started to fight dirty.  While there were a great many people who hated Hux for his ambition social climbing, not even his worst enemy would deny that Armitage Hux was a strategist.  Was he a good fighter?  No, not really.  Was he good at schmoozing important people at social events?  No, not unless awkward glaring counted as schmoozing.  But was Hux good at planning things?  Fuck yes.  By this point he also had a decent grasp of his enemy, since Kylo was definitely a ‘wear your heart and everything else on your sleeve’ kind of fellow.  

Ergo, Hux had both the knowledge and the skills to drug Kylo at least three times before the Jedi actually realized what was happening.  

Missions went better when Kylo was asleep, and even when they weren’t on missions, Hux himself slept better when the Jedi terror was asleep.  All in all, it wasn’t a bad arrangement, in Hux’s books.  Even after Kylo realized that he wasn’t just taking long and unplanned naps but instead being actively drugged, Hux still managed to knock him out two more times (once by misusing the ventilation system and another time by actually tampering with the Jedi’s water supply) before Kylo got to the root of the problem: Captain Hux himself.  To be fair, the two of them had become particularly un-fond of each other by this point, so not only was it natural that Hux would be the perpetrator, but even if he wasn’t, Kylo would probably still have attacked him.

Somehow, the collar of Force-induced bruises around Hux’s throat was worth it.  On the verge of blacking out and more than a little afraid of dying, Hux had promised not to drug Kylo unconscious again, but Hux was also an inveterate liar when it was necessary, so he’d probably do it again.  If nothing else, it was immensely rewarding to see the paranoia in Kylo that kept him better behaved for at least two weeks after the whole incident. 

Because of Kylo, the _Thunderkite_ returned regularly to base, so that Supreme Leader Snoke could continue the Jedi’s training in person periodically.  In between, working alongside others was supposed to ‘season’ Ren, although Hux had considered the possibility that someone higher up was just trying to torture a certain ambitious, redheaded captain.  The one time that Hux had finally broken down and tried to get Snoke to remove Kylo from his roster, he’d found out that the situation was non-negotiable.  Thankfully, there had been no witnesses as Hux had borderline begged - and then borderline ordered - to have this Jedi-shaped burden given to someone else.  Not only had the whole exchange been quite embarrassing, but it had ended in Snoke, barely even moving, lifting Hux right off the floor with the Force and hurling him across the room.  The eventual impact with the floor had hurt, but worse had been the immense, mountain-like weight that had kept Hux pressed to the floor for minutes afterwards.  Kylo’s choking of Hux in the past seemed like child’s-play by comparison, and it was with real terror in his heart that Hux had eventually been allowed to exit the room. 

“Where’d you get the bruises from?” Kylo had asked the next day, when they’d been back on the _Thunderkite_ and heading towards the Kalyksekkan border to negotiate with the natives.  Hux had been working off some steam at the gym, and had been too focused to notice the Jedi slipping in.  The late hour should have precluded company, but apparently the universe hated Hux.

Feeling suddenly more naked than he was in his sleeveless undershirt and loose trousers, Hux had snarled, “None of your damn business,” and stormed out.

Since Hux had maintained a chilly level of professionalism up until now, his fury contained behind stiffly controlled, formal language, the sudden swearing was enough of a shock to get Kylo to shut up.  Hux, fully aware that his right side and black were mottled black and blue in a way that even bacta couldn’t completely fix, stormed out without interruption. 

~^~

The journey to the Kalyksekkan border was a long one - it was at the far reaches of the First Order’s territory, and the only way they could keep extending in that direction was if they made a deal with the Kalyksekkan people.  Usually, the First Order would have just pushed its way through any opposition, and Hux would have supported that, but this was a different situation.  Kalyksekkan space was inhabited by massive, interstellar creatures of which little was known besides rumors and warnings.  They were commonly referred to as “ship-eaters,” and the Order hadn’t figured out a safe way to deal with them yet.  Some ship-eaters were reported to be the size of small asteroids, and until the Order came up with weapons able to kill something like that, they’d have to play nice with the Kalyksekkans - because the Kalyksekkans had lived alongside ship-eaters for eons, and apparently knew how to talk to them.  Hux wasn’t sure he believed that, but he did believe that they had to make these people their allies if the Order wanted to pass through eater-infested space.  They’d picked up a negotiator along the way, a nervous sort of man who had dealt with the Kalyksekkans before, but who also got a very haunted look about him whenever he talked about his past encounters.  Apparently the Kalyksekkans were telepathic and not particularly humanoid.  

All of this Hux could have dealt with: having a human ambassador aboard his ship, having a boring flight into a possibly dangerous situation, even facing the imminent prospect of seeing creatures who, if the pictures he’d seen were correct, were quite unsettlingly ugly.  What made the whole trip unbearable was that fact that Snoke had taught his prodigy something new before they left, and like a young pup with new teeth, Ren just _had_ to gnaw at things.

The Kalyksekkans weren’t the only telepaths now.  Kylo Ren had been taught how to read minds. 

To be fair, he wasn’t very good at it.  He usually had to be in the same room as his target, and it was never subtle - in fact, usually it hurt like hell.  Hux knew, because he swiftly became Kylo’s favorite person to practice on.  There wasn’t anything that Hux was hiding from him, at least - there weren’t any First Order secrets that Hux knew but Ren didn’t - but that fact hardly made the experience more bearable.  It was like having an instant migraine, sometimes accompanied by Kylo’s voice in his head, unnaturally loud like a shout in a tunnel, and full of crowing triumph that made Hux want to take that pretty lightsaber and run it right up Kylo’s arsehole. 

The lightsaber turned out to be part of the problem.

There was actually one secret that Hux was studiously keeping from his cantankerous charge: as much as Hux hated Kylo, all of his ire flew out the window when he saw the man use a lightsaber.  It was just a reflex, like the surge of adrenalin he still felt every time his ship went smoothly into lightspeed.  There was just something about it that, for a split second, cleared his head of everything but awe.  Watching Kylo working with a saber had much the same reaction.  Because no matter how stupid and annoying and utterly infuriating Kylo Ren was, he was like a solar storm in a fight - it wasn’t just that he was skilled, or that he moved with the smoothness of both natural talent and practice, it was that he radiated power like a star.  Making matters worse was the fact that Hux had always been naturally attracted to power, so in the end, he was helpless to stop the reaction.  Ninety-percent of the time, Hux wanted to eject Kylo out of an airlock; the rest of that ten-percent, Kylo was either practicing aboard the _Thunderkite’s_ rec-room, or else his skills had been called for on a mission, and Hux was so far gone on him that it wasn’t even funny.  The red-headed captain managed these feelings by studiously hiding them, so while he was just about drooling on the inside (he was pretty sure that if he was every allowed to so much as hold that saber - no pun intended - he’d come in his pants), outwardly he maintained the same ‘I hate your guts’ expression that everyone had come to expect.  

But then Kylo, in one of his stupid mind-reading stunts, managed to pick up that little fact in Hux’s thoughts.

The timing had been terrible.  Hux had once again been trying to sneak some time in the rec-room (he was busy most of the time, and even when he wasn’t, he didn’t like the feeling of people seeing him out of uniform; he felt disarmed, somehow, and hated the perceived weakness).  This was where he and Kylo often ran into each other, because while Hux spent most of his time running a ship, Kylo spent most of his time training.  Therefore, it was not entirely unprecedented that they might run into each other like this.  Usually, a fight was inevitable at this point, unless Kylo had already worn himself out and/or cut enough gashes in the wall to let out his omnipresent temper.  Or unless Hux just turned around and left, deciding it wasn’t worth the stress when he hated exercises even under good circumstances.  This time, though, Hux had gotten in the door and had immediately frozen, mesmerized in seconds.  Kylo was practicing with his lightsaber.  This, too, was by no means unprecedented, so Hux kept his expression carefully under wraps while his eyes followed the humming blade keenly.  Kylo was shirtless, and while he was moving slowly - not with his usual fervor and anger - he’d clearly been at it awhile, because he was glistening with sweat.  The lightsaber’s glow made his tanned skin veritably gleam, picking out shifting muscles with splashes of garnet light. 

Hux never really paused to think about why Kylo was moving so slowly, or what that meant about his mental focus, until suddenly he staggered back under the onslaught of sudden hot pressure in his head, and Kylo’s lightsaber flickered off a beat later.  While Hux regained his balance with a thunk of his shoulder-blades against the wall, hands pressed to his temples, the pressure of mental invasion faded - leaving just a disoriented Hux and a blatantly startled-looking Kylo.  “You think my lightsaber is _sexy_?” the Jedi asked without any preamble, but with a lot of surprise.

Hux froze up like he hadn’t since his early training days, and the only thing that kept horror from suffusing his system was the fact that he was still dazed from the pain of a telepathic intrusion.  That also kept him from flat-out escaping, since that was his second reaction, after mortification. 

His next reaction was rage.  

Forgetting for one insane moment that he was dealing with a temperamental Jedi who not only hated him but how was presently holding a powered-down lightsaber, Hux dropped his hands from his head and got his legs moving - but not to leave.  Instead, Hux stalked right up into Kylo’s space until he was nearly standing atop his bare toes.  His expression must have been truly impressive, or perhaps his body language, because despite the fact that Kylo was nearly twice Hux’s mass in pure muscle, the Jedi stiffened and took an aborted half-step back.  He was apparently too startled to actually use his lightsaber, as he suddenly found himself with a fully furious Armitage Hux on his hands.

Mildly put, this was what it had taken for Hux to finally snap.

Suddenly, endangering his career didn’t sound like a terrible price to pay if someone found out that he’d murdered one of Snoke’s pet Jedi.

“If you ever bring this up again, or - _hell_ , if you upset my command of this ship by so much as an iota, I _will_ kill you and make it look like an accident,” Hux said.  He didn’t shout.  He didn’t snarl.  His voice was flat and deadly, only the faintest tremor giving away the tumult of emotions otherwise sealed beneath.  Meeting Kylo’s wide, dark-brown eyes without flinching, Hux went on quietly, “It'll be simple.  The next time you go to sleep, maybe you just won’t wake up.  I’ll say that we picked up some rare alien disease, and while we managed to contain it before it killed anyone else, we had to eject your body into space - for the safety of the crew.  Or an accident with the garbage compactor.  I could do it.”  Hux’s voice had gone detached and thoughtful at the end, and a tiny part of him that still had room for humor was very amused by the look of dawning horror in Kylo’s eyes.  Yup, this was the real Armitage Hux: on a normal basis, he was merciless and driven, but when he wasn’t playing nice, he was _cutthroat_.  It had unsettled his childhood classmates, so he’d learned to hide it early.  Monsters in human skins didn’t get promoted as quickly. 

Belatedly realizing what he was doing - going toe-to-toe with Kylo Ren, who could probably get away with killing Hux more easily than Hux could get away with killing Ren - Hux closed his mouth with an audible _click_ of teeth.  Still, he dared to lift a hand, and poke a finger hard into one ridiculously muscular pectoral just for good measure before he turned on his heel and stormed out.  He made sure to leave before Kylo recovered enough to react, but also before Hux’s adrenalin wore off enough for him to realize how monumentally terrified he was. 

That had been three days ago.  Three days in which everyone walked around Hux as if on thin ice.  It was pretty clear that something had happened, and the crew had long-since learned to watch their captain’s moods carefully.  Because while Kylo was a real terror, he was like a storm you could see coming, and avoid.  Hux, though?  If Hux got it in his head to truly be mad, he’d kill you in your sleep, no warning.  That, so far as the crew was concerned, was monumentally more dangerous than the angry Jedi with the crackling red lightsaber. 

Today they’d arrived at Kylekk 4, and the Kalyksekken embassy was apparently easily offended if only a measly number of people deigned to come meet them.  The human ambassador looked a bit abashed when he admitted that his usual team had opted not to come on this trip.  Why they had made this decision, Hux wasn’t sure, but after much wheedling on the part of the ambassador (who really was quite a negotiator, truth be told), Hux signed himself and six other members of his crew up to pad out the ambassador’s retinue.  Kylo had already been assigned to go, acting as a bodyguard if things became violent.  Fortunately, and to Hux’s deep surprise, Kylo Ren was avoiding him almost more than the crew was.  The Jedi was actually leaving Hux alone instead of being an arse and making things worse like he usually would have.  Hux counted it as a win and hoped that the Jedi (and his stupid, sexy lightsaber fighting skills) would avoid him indefinitely.  

That small ray of hope evened out his stormy mood into something neutral as he dressed up in his military best and joined the group who would act as a backdrop for the negotiations.  

Hux had to admit, the Kalyksekken were quite advanced.  He’d gotten a peak at their massive ships as they’d entered orbit, and had been escorted to the landing pad on Kylekk 4.  While size wasn’t always a determiner of skill (Hux being a perfect example), he could also see the obvious craftsmanship that had gone in to the ships.  The landing area was much less impressive: they all landed atop a vast, flat plaza, but the only other manufactured material around them was one outbuilding, all of the same dark stone.  Everything else was forest, and as Hux and the others exited the ship, he was accosted by the usual humidity that accompanied such things.  He was suddenly glad for his hat, knowing that the wetness of the air would already be doing terrible things to his hair.  The human ambassador - Isben, Hux thought his name was; Ambassador Isben - led the way towards the stone structure without hesitation.  There was no further escort, allowing Hux no early viewing of the species they were scheduled to meet.  Everyone had been briefed, however: the Kalyksekkens were, in layman's terms, a sluglike people.  They were as tall as a human if not taller, but their bodies tapered at both ends and they had no legs to speak of, instead sliding along the ground like a slug would.  They had arms, though - the number varied - and a tentacled face with a vertical slice of a mouth that apparently made speaking rather difficult.  That was no doubt related (either as cause or effect) to the fact that Kalyksekken’s spoke primarily telepathically.  Hux had been assured, however, that Kalyksekken telepathy only allowed them to _speak_ mind-to-mind, not burrow into human thoughts to scrounge up information.  

That made them, thus far, officially better than Kylo Ren.  Hux bit back his first smile in days at the thought of a sluglike lifeform being better than Kylo Ren.  

Ambassador Isben mumbled for the rest of them to halt where they were, just inside the building.  It was like stepping into a darkened, black-painted box; Hux and the others stood within a greyish pall of light, but the building beyond them faded into impenetrable shadow.  Hux had left orders for his ship to leave immediately if anything seemed amiss, so overall, he wasn’t too concerned - that, and they _did_ have a Jedi with him.  As much as it pained Hux to admit it, Kylo was a very capable fighter, and it was hard to worry about a physical attack while he was present.  The rest of them were unarmed, as befitted a calm, sensible, gathering of folk.

When the first Kalyksekken stepped out of the shadows, however, everyone tensed and became a lot less calm.

The building they were in was a lot like a warehouse, high-ceiling - the reason for this became clear when the Kalyksekken turned out to be well over twice Hux’s height.  It didn’t so much step forward as slither, its slide entirely silent, so that no one knew of its approach until the light began to reach it.  First, it’s tentacled head was visible, glimmers of light limbing slick skin, nearly three meters in the air.  The head - studded with six eyes, three to a side - was followed by a long column of neck that widened gradually to what looked like a cloak with ruffled collar. Eight arms were in evidence, one tapping the floor with te gnarled looking cane, each long, clawed finger adorned.  The glamour did very little to hide the shoulder-less, slug-like body, although the enveloping cloak shadowed the lower body in deeper shadows.  It would have been possible to imagine something more elegant under there, had not the fleshy tale exited the back, trailing a glinting track of slime.  

Two more Kalyksekken’s followed, but they were noticeably smaller, wore ruff-less cloaks, and also had fewer arms.  They stayed further back in the shadows.

The lead Kalyksekken paused a few meters from Ambassador Isben, and the mass of tentacles around its mouth wriggled to the side to reveal a vertical slash.  Hux winced, trying not to grimace, realizing that he was looking at a mouth. 

“Ambassador… Isben,” the creature said, with a sort of not-quite-lisp that probably came from having a mouth not made for words.  It looked like someone had dragged a knife down its throat to make swallowing more expedient.  Looking more closely, glad that he wasn’t the center of attention so that his staring wouldn’t be obvious, Hux realized that instead of lips, the ‘mouth’ was studded with rows and rows of tiny teeth.  A shiver ran down his spine and he resisted the urge to grimace.  “You may call me… Ambassador Tho,” it finished its introduction.  It’s speech was ponderous and intentional, although Hux immediately suspected that the name was merely a noise chosen for the purpose of this conversation.  What this beast actually called itself, in its telepathic language, Hux couldn’t even begin to guess.   

What followed was a stilted sort of conversation, because Kalyksekken mouths were ill-equipped for human speech, and then Tho suggested - rather hopefully - that they switch to telepathy, and reached one of its eight hands forward, Isben skittered back like some sort of startled rodent.  Hux knew that it wasn’t really his place to judge, but he was definitely judging, because Isben seemed a bit tightly strung to be the First Order’s ambassador on such an important mission.  In fact, it grew increasingly clear as time wore on that the Kalyksekken ambassador was taking advantage of Isben, its demands growing more and more ostentatious in return for safe passage through the sector.  Whenever Isben seemed to be getting control of the negotiations, all the Kalyksekken had to do was gesture as if to touch the man, and Isben would get flustered again.  The one time that Isben requested Tho not touch him, all of the Kalyksekkens (the others still poised in the background like vaguely pyramidal statues, slimy tails trailing off into the darkness) stiffened in obvious offense.  While their speech was often slow and a bit garbled, struggling with spoken speech, Hux found their body-language fairly easy to ascertain, as Tho vacillated between being affronted, patronizing, and perhaps even smugly amused.  After it felt like they’d been standing there watching a slowly unfolding shuttle collision for hours, Hux sighed and removed his hat, dragging a hand back through his hair and cursing the dampness in the air - at least the room itself was cool, the only positive facet in this entire situation. 

Ambassador Tho, who had been bending down over its shorter human counterpart and gesticulating wildly with its facial tentacles as the negotiations devolved further, jerked its head up suddenly.  Kalyksekken eyes were dark and fishlike, so it took Hux a moment to realize that all six of Tho's eyes had settled on him - or, rather, on _his hair_.  As the Kalyksekken’s head lifted, it became increasingly clear that Ambassador Isben had not only lost control of the negotiations, but had actually lost Ambassador Tho's attention altogether.  “You are… an _interesting_ human,” Tho said in its laborious speech, words spoken lowly and wetly as its vertical mouth-slit fluttered and flexed.  Despite its struggles with the spoken language, however, it was very clear that ‘interesting’ was a compliment, and that Ambassador Isben, by contrast, was not interesting.  

Hux struggled to maintain his composure, his hat still in one hand and the other buried in his damp red hair.  All eyes had turned to him, however, so he knew that he couldn’t afford to look weak.  He was the captain, after all.  “Thank you, Ambassador Tho,” he replied as formally as he could.  The hat went back on his head.

The Kalyksekken’s attention didn’t waver, however.  Its facial tentacles in fact lifted and rippled in Hux’s direction, as if reaching for him across the distance.  “I… have not seen… a human such as you,” it went on.  Hux frowned as he sensed an almost fawning attitude being displayed - but not a sincere one, he thought.  Increasingly, in fact, Hux was suspecting that the Kalyksekken’s were a very manipulative people - or at least Ambassador Tho was. 

“It’s genetic,” Hux answered as succinctly as he could, even as he heard someone snicker - Kylo, he suspected.

That someone then muttered in a too-cheery undertone, “Someone’s got an admirer.”  Yes, it was definitely Kylo speaking.  Hux resisted the urge to turn around and punch him.  

Both Hux and Kylo were largely ignored, fortunately, as Ambassador Isben tried to regain control of the conversation.  His efforts held a note of desperation at this point, and that was probably either the cause or the effect of him losing his metaphorical footing entirely over the next five minutes.  Hux would have just about labeled the following conversation as a _squabble_ , with Isben playing the ignored child and Tho playing the aloof, moody teenager, both of them trying to assert dominance with varying levels of success.  It would have been funny if there wasn’t so much hanging in the balance.  The First Order _needed_ this negotiation to be a success.

Simmering with frustration at how this was going in general - and at Isben’s incompetence in particular - Hux was aware that he was glowering by the time he suddenly became the focal point again.  “Him,” Tho said suddenly.  His words still felt like they were being dragged up a long, wet tunnel, but his tone was stubborn - and his eyes and facial tentacles were focused on a very startled Hux yet again.  “I wish to continue negotiations with _him_.”  


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ambassador Tho is fascinated, Hux is pissed off, and Kylo is about to be dragged into the mix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is possibly my favorite chapter... and not because of the tentacles

‘ _This is ridiculous_ ,’ Hux wanted to say.  Instead he just looked to Ambassador Isben and tried to silently ask the man for instructions without also letting on that he thought the man to be an idiot.  Hux had gotten better, over the years, at hiding his feelings beneath a professional mask, but ‘better’ wasn’t perfect.  By the way that Isben flinched and looked away, some of Hux’s more negative feelings were definitely showing on his face.  Nonetheless, it spurred Isben into action again: he tried to remind Ambassador Tho that it was _Isben_ , not _Captain Hux_ , who was familiar with Kalyksekken diplomacy and society.  By this point, however, the Kalyksekkens had decided to become full-on divas, no doubt realizing that they held all of the power in this negotiation and deciding to use it in the most maddening way possible.

Perhaps that was why Hux suddenly heaved a breath, rolled his eyes, and then strode purposefully forward.  He hated pandering to childish whims, but considering that he’d become a babysitter for a childish jedi, he figured there was no turning back.  “Ambassador Isben is correct,” he said, lifting his voice into an octave and pitch that he found appeased authority figures, “I’m not trained in negotiations.  I’m merely a captain.”  Saying ‘merely’ in front of his title stung a bit, but Hux smiled his way through it, reminding himself that he had no intentions of staying _merely_ a captain forever.  

Hearing what could only be a disgruntled noise from the Kalyksekken ambassador, Hux swiftly added, “But I’d be honored to be included in these discussions.”  Hoping to maintain some kind of hierarchy and order, he dipped his head to a very flustered Isben, and for a short while, order reigned once again. 

But only for a short while.  

It was barely minutes this time before Ambassador Tho was making displeased noises again (they sounded like a cross between a human growl and a burst of flatulence) and lashing his facial tentacles about.  Raising his head up on his long, high neck and making exasperated gestures with his hands, Tho exclaimed while Isben was mid-sentence, “I _cannot_ understand you!  You make... no sense!”

Head craned back, Hux could clearly see the workings of that vertical mouth, and resisted the urge to grimace at the way it undulated and flapped around the studded rows of small teeth.  Then suddenly, however, the Kalyksekken was bending down, suddenly putting its many eyes almost level with Hux’s.  The captain was startled when one of those facial tentacles reached for him, and in fact lost his hat in an instant, before Ambassador Isben was tugging him back out of reach.  

The Kalyksekken _whined_.  It was a wet sort of sound, but nonetheless identifiable as a sort of pleading, bereft noise.  “I simply wish…” Tho said, deciding _now_ to affect a polite if somewhat patronizing tone, “...to speak more clearly.”  The Kalyksekken’s eyes, up close, proved not to be entirely black, but instead a dark, mottled brown with a speck of black pupil in the middle, which Hux watched swivel in six different eyes, towards Isben.  Distaste flavored the Kalyksekken’s tone as he went on, “You, Ambassador, have made… rudely clear… that you do not wish to honor me… with our kind of speaking.”

Confused, but sensing something big here, like a monster beneath a frozen ocean surface, Hux frowned and turned slowly to Isben as well.  He saw that the First Order’s ambasador looked acutely uncomfortable, mouth pursed and twitched downwards in a frown, the sheen of sweat upon his downy upper lip more visible than before.  Resisting the urge to straighten his hair out now that he’d had his hat swiped, Hux asked Isben slowly, “What does he mean, ‘our kind of speaking’?”

The Kalyksekken ambassador took it upon itself to answer before Isben’s mouth could more than open.  “We have offered… repeatedly… and easier way of co-mu-nicating,” Tho stretched out the last word, proving how difficult it was to use human speech.  One decorated hand rolled and spread in a ‘what can we do?’ sort of gesture - which only made Hux suspicious, because Tho seemed to know an awful lot of human tones and mannerisms.  The sense that Tho was being manipulative increased.  Harmlessly - or faux-harmlessly - Tho went on, “We speak another way - you call it… telepathy.”  The head upon its long, tapered stock fixated on Hux again, all too keenly.  “I want to speak that way with you.”

“ _No_ ,” Isben said immediately.  It was his firmest answer yet, ironically.  Hux looked between them, torn between the fact that this sounded like a very bad idea, and the fact that he needed to secure passage through Kalyksekken space for the First Order.  

Stubborn, Tho’s tentacles rippled and its long mouth replied, “I _request_ to speak with the captain Hux in my people’s fashion.”  The special emphasis was unmistakable, and made it painfully clear that this was not really a request.  

Patience wearing thin, Hux tugged at Ambassador Isben’s sleeve until they were turned broadside to Tho, allowing Hux to talk of Isben pseudo-confidentially, “I take it you’ve said no to this request before?”

Isben looked nervous.  The sweat on him no longer seemed to be from the dampness in the air and the heat beginning to seep in from outside.  Glancing exasperatedly at the Kalyksekken before returning his gaze to Hux, Isben explained in a whisper, “While the Kalyksekken claim that their telepathy is incapable of going beneath surface thoughts, there’s always been the fear that they’ll hunt for more information.”  Another nervous glance, ensuring that Tho couldn’t hear; if the Kalyksekken could, he was doing a fine job of appearing ignorant.  That gave Isben the courage to scowl a bit harder, lean a bit closer to Hux, and hiss, “They’re a lot more manipulative and ambitious than you think.”

‘ _So am I_ ,’ Hux reflected, but sympathy aside, he could see the risk.  At the same time, however, he also could see that they were at a stalemate, and wouldn’t be getting anywhere without giving in to at least a few of Tho’s demands.  Chewing over Isben’s words, Hux asked slowly, “Is it dangerous?  Talking mind-to-mind with them?”

By Isben’s blink, he hadn’t expected a follow-up question.  Nonetheless, he answered, “Not to our knowledge.  They have to touch you, which means you end up slimy as-”  The ambassador stumbled on the edge of foul language, flushing, then backed up to say more professionally, “They usually touch with a tentacle, which excretes a mucous that can be troublesome to get off later, but no one has had any adverse reactions to the experience.  The few humans who have engaged with telepathic communications with a Kalyksekken describe only the words and images they are transmitted.  No discomfort.”

“That officially makes the Kalyksekkens better at this than Ren,” Hux muttered, then came to a decision.  Turning purposefully away from Isben to instead give his full attention to Ambassador Tho - whose body straightened a bit in response, tentacles giving a twitch -  Hux raised his voice to speak with authority and volume again, “What you’re asking is highly irregular, but I will accept, if it means that you will be more amenable to _our_ requests.”  The similar wording was no coincidental.  Hux made eye-contact as firmly as he could with the six eyes looming up above him.  

Behind him, Isben made a choking noise of either shock or dismay. Perhaps both.  There were other similar sounds from the rest of the human crew further back, but Hux pretended not to notice, his attention fully fixed on Tho.  If the Kalyksekken ambassador was as manipulative as Isben claimed, then Hux wasn’t going to show weakness. 

Tho cocked his head slightly, perhaps realizing just what he was dealing with.  

He didn’t know the half of it.

Hux kept talking, keeping his voice modulated and smooth, as he’d speak to a superior that he himself wished to carefully coerce - it was a game he’d been playing virtually since childhood.  The Hux family was a highly political entity, even for the young.  “I hope you understand our misgivings, and mine personally.  As a captain of the First Order, I am obliged to keep certain confidences, and my superiors will be uneasy to learn that I had a foreign telepath in my head.”  He had to tack on ‘foreign,’ because familiar, First Order telepaths named Kylo Ren were apparently allowed to gallivant through Hux’s head whenever they wished. 

Not unexpectedly, Tho immediately bent down a bit to make himself appear more harmless, folding three hands one atop the other on his walking stick.  He assured in a voice as cooing and smooth as his mouth would allow, “I assure you... Captain… you will hear only my words, and I… will hear… only yours.  No secrets.”

‘ _Forgive me if I don’t believe you_ ,’ Hux thought to himself, while outwardly he fashioned a polite smile.  His mind was working quickly, finding answers wedged between the sharpening flint and steel of his brain.  He’d never liked improv, but today it was necessary.  “Ambassador Isben will have to stay involved, of course,” Hux went on as a plan formed, “but I would be honored to act as a liaison, if it would speed up negotiations.”

“Of course,” the Kalyksekken answered effusively, two hands bracing on the walking stick as it bowed - the remaining four arms spread benevolently.  

‘ _You’re friendly enough when you’re getting your way_ ,’ Hux noted sardonically, resisting the urge to curl his lip.  He was already annoyed enough to realize that he’d become something of a novelty - an exotic entity that was also an excuse for Ambassador Tho to embarrass the human visitors.  Being patronized on top of it all was just about enough to shatter Hux’s veneer of calm.  It was that bubbling, internal anger that perhaps goded Hux into what he said next, despite the fact that his logical side was screaming against this part of the plan, “I have one favor to ask, however.”

“Name it,” Tho burbled out, all too happy to appear benevolent when it seemed like the humans were at a disadvantage.  

“Let me converse with my colleagues first,” Hux chose to answer enigmatically instead of giving a straight answer.  To ensure that the Kalyksekken ambassador didn’t back out, however, Hux forced his mouth to widen in his friendliest smile, and he even dipped his head in a bow - and watched how Tho’s tentacles stretched almost subconsciously towards the strands of red hair.  

Feeling a bit sickened - and wondering if this was how women felt, using their _wiles_ to get certain responses from avaricious men - Hux turned on his heel when Tho graciously dismissed them.  It took effort to walk at a steady pace when in reality he had a strong urge to sprint back to his ship.  Unfortunately, he knew that the worst was yet to come… because the only plan he could think of was a pretty bad one.  

“ _What_ were you _thinking_?” Isben hissed even as they reached the rest of their team.  “You can’t just agree to that!”

Hux, heaving a long-suffering sigh, ignored him.  His gaze sought out the only other being in this room that he wanted to engage with less - but whom he’d have to involve if his plan was to work.

“Ren,” he snapped.  It was with mild surprise that he saw the Jedi actually snap to something resembling attention.  Perhaps the proceedings had unsettled Kylo; perhaps Hux’s temper was slipping out into his voice again, sharp enough to make even a Jedi slightly nervous.  Hux decided he didn’t care for the underlying reason, so long as the obedience was there for once.  He met the Jedi’s dark gaze and said without hesitation, “When you’re telepathically in someone else's head, are you able to detect other invading psyches?”

Kylo’s brows were lowering, his growing wariness very obvious.  “Yes, but-” he answered slowly. 

That was all Hux needed - and, frankly, wanted - to hear.  He cut him off briskly, folding his hands behind his back in a parade-rest style that also would keep anyone from seeing them shake.  “Good, because I need that skill of yours.  It seems the only way we’re going to make headway with the Kalyksekken ambassador is if I act as a translator.  If you can ensure that the ambassador doesn’t snoop around where he doesn’t belong in my head, I have no issues with this course of action.”  It took a massive effort for Hux to keep his own misgivings off his face as he said this, especially as Kylo’s (and everyone else’s) expressions morphed into looks of shock.  

“Really, Captain, I must insist,” Isben tried to step in, yet again trying to regain control after he’d totally lost it, “Even without the threat to the Order’s secrets, this…”  He floundered, because so far, Kylo hadn’t said that he _couldn’t_ defend Hux’s mind from invasion - perhaps the Jedi was still in shock, however, and it hadn’t sunk in.  Hux was shamelessly taking advantage of this.  Isben still managed to get a few more sputtered words in, “...I’m still told that it’s highly uncomfortable-”

“I’m not here to be comfortable,” Hux cut him off as he’d cut Kylo off, deciding that today was already getting too damn long for him to waste time listening to stupid people.  “I’m here to secure safe passage for the First Order through Kalyksekken space.  This ventures seems like it might yield such results.”  Now he swiveled to hit Isben with the full force of his glare, finishing with very little sugar over the sourness of his tone, “Unless you have a better idea to get Ambassador Tho to cooperate?”

Perhaps if Hux were a better man, he’d have felt a bit bad about how Isben wilted then.  As it was, Hux was just resignedly glad that the arguing stopped.  Since Hux was the one who was about to have not one but two people in his head, he really couldn’t argue with any of the statements that had been made - he had no doubt that this would be uncomfortable.  In fact, he had no doubt that he _hated_ this plan.  Duty came before discomfort, however, so he clenched his stomach muscles against the flipping sensation in his belly, carefully clamped down on any expression of fear or uncertainty, and said in his most commanding voice, “Ambassador Isben, if you’d come with me, we’ll return to negotiations.  Ren?”

Later, Hux would hopefully look back on this fondly, because the Jedi still looked a bit stunned by the turn of events.  He actually jumped at being addressed, eyebrows up around his hairline and almond-shaped eyes blinking owlishly.  “Yes?”

“I fully expect you be in my head by the time I cross the room,” Hux laid down his orders without room for argument.  Then, just to ensure that Kylo didn’t try and argue anyway, the redheaded captain spun on his heel and began striding back to the Kalyksekken delegation - then thought a minute, closed his eyes for strength, and made another strategic but unpleasant decision.  He turned around and slapped his hat against Kylo’s chest, saying nothing but making it very clear that he was leaving it with the Jedi.  The Kalyksekkens seemed to like him best bareheaded anyway.  Hux stalked away again with his right wrist grasped firmly behind his back in his left hand, because he was definitely shaking now.  

~^~

For about five steps, Hux worried that Ren was ignoring his orders.  It would be just like him, to be reading Hux’s mind when he wasn’t needed, but then fucking absent on the one occasion when Hux actually _asked_ him-!  

Hux hissed in a sharp but thankfully silent breath as he felt the first throb of painful pressure, starting just behind either ear and spreading.  He’d never thought that he’d be even the teensiest bit thankful for this intrusion, but now he felt at least some of his anxiety fade away, even as the pain slowly built.  This wasn’t quite the same instant-migraine that he usually got, and Hux took a second to ponder whether this was what it felt like when Kylo was actually being _gentle_ about it.  Hux wasn’t sure whether to be grateful, or to turn around and scream at Kylo for apparently being telepathically reckless with Hux’s head up until now.  

Sadly, neither option was viable; Hux had a job to do.  His steps had faltered faintly at the first influx of discomfort, but he steadied them now, hoping that that tiny wobble hadn’t been noticeable.  Thankfully, the Kalyksekken’s still seemed to be utterly fascinated with Hux’s hair, to the exclusion of most other things.  It had been years since anyone had dared make fun of Hux’s fiery hair-color, but he felt his cheeks coloring now, memories of childhood stares and teasing rising from some dark place in his early memories.  He once again came to stand in Ambassador Tho’s shadow, looking up. 

The tall alien cocked its head again, six eyes fixed like dark, wet stones.  “I presume…” it asked wetly, “...you have discussed… and accepted my terms for how... we shall proceed?”

It was poignant, Hux knew, that Tho was now addressing only him.  Isben had been forgotten, which was perhaps for the best, since the man was clearly not very good at his job.  Hux, hoping to do a bit better, pulled out another smile and pasted it across his face.  His left hand squeezed his right wrist a bit more tightly.  “Indeed.  As a Captain of the First Order, I would be honored to serve as a translator, if that would make negotiations easier for you,” he said with all the false graciousness he didn’t feel but had been trained to emulate.  

“What about… your demand?” Tho asked, tentacles pulling back briefly to show Hux the full, vertical slit of the Kalyksekken’s mouth.  It was vaguely sickening to see, like the belly of some creature split open down the middle. 

“Already handled,” Hux said with what felt like his last available smile, trying not to watch the mouth or tentacles, which really left only the six dark eyes to stare at.  He was already getting a kink in his neck from looking up, and wished he hadn't come to stand this close - but damn if he was going to back away now, metaphorically or literally.  He hadn’t come here to show weakness.  “What do you require of me?” he asked next, both to preclude any further inquiries into his ‘demand,’ and to keep this moving forward when all Hux really wanted to do was back the fuck out.  

It was hard to read expressions on a Kalyksekken, but Hux was sure that Tho looked pleased, one hand reaching forward to rest on Hux’s shoulder.  It took a massive amount of effort not to flinch away from the restraining gesture.  “You need only… stand still and translate,” the ambassador explained in its laborious speech, “I am sure… you were told… that I must touch you now?”  Already Tho was leaning downwards, facial tentacles twitching like the fingers of a man just coming out of a coma.  If Hux wasn’t mistaken, there was a glint of sadism in those eyes as they watched to see if Hux would balk. 

That on its own was enough to have Hux digging his metaphorical and physical heels in, and straightening his spine stubbornly.  His parade-rest stance became something more commanding, more befitting a captain of the First Order.  “I am aware of your species need for physical contact to initiate telepathic connections with humans,” he said, and added mentally before his thoughts were no longer truly private, ‘ _So just fucking do it._ ’  Belatedly, he realized that Tho was already touching him - the spindly-fingered, bejeweled hand on his right shoulder - but the Kalyksekken made no indicator that it had noticed the vitriolic thought.

Hux’s next thoughts were ones of disgust, and quite beyond his ability to stifle them, as the first tentacle finally came close enough to just touch one cold, slimy tip to his left cheekbone.  It felt just as terrible as he’d been told to expect, and when more contact was made, it got _worse_.  It was like being licked across the cheek by something dead, and he involuntarily let go of his wrist as his arms fell to his sides - an involuntary defensive reaction, although he stopped himself before his next movement, which would have been to reach for the hand on his shoulder and snap it off at the elbow.  The throbbing headache in his skull ramped up a few notches at about the same time, but that wasn’t why Hux gritted his teeth.  He did that because Tho’s tentacles had tiny suckers on them, and Hux was a man who didn’t like to be touched at the best of times.  This was like being mouthed at by scores of fingernail-sized, wet lips, more by the second as a second tentacle came up to creep across the other side of his face.  Hux widened his stance as if bracing himself, and felt his hands clench of their own volition as he fought to stay still, to ignore the instincts that were telling him to get himself anywhere but here. 

Fortunately, the tentacles froze after just two of them had slid their way back across his cheeks to either temple.  The remaining appendages hovered like the rays of a gristly sort of star as Tho made a grinding sort of noise.  “There’s another in your mind,” the Kalyksekken said unexpectedly, out loud.  

Hux worked to tamp down the fiery flare of triumph in his head, in case the telepathic alien picked it up.  “Yes, there is,” he replied past a thin smile and a tense jaw.  In fact, the presence of said person was starting to create a headache of migraine levels, but it was worth it just to see the Kalyksekken delegates all shift and shuffle in surprise.  In fact, Hux was able to see Tho scanning past him, as if trying to  guess where the other telepath was. 

Not wanting the paranoia to get too out of hand (as tempting as it was to revel in this little victory of unsettling Tho as Tho was unsettling him, Hux had a job to do), Hux muffled his smile and spoke again, “You must understand the precautions I must take, to ensure the safety of the information I carry.  This is standard procedure.”  The last part was last-minute lie, but Tho still seemed too off-balance to catch it - or perhaps Kylo was actually doing his fucking job and keeping some parts of Hux’s thoughts and feelings hidden.  That latter possibility gave Hux a measure of reassurance, allowing him to breathe in slowly and exhale slower still, forcing himself to relax despite the multiple brands of discomfort he was feeling.  Tho’s grip on his shoulder had become almost rudely tight.  “If you could loosen your hand, Ambassador, might we continue?” Hux said as politely and steadily as he could. 

Tho’s head swiveled a little until it was clear that he was looking at Hux again instead of the people around and behind him.  The six eyes perhaps narrowed.  Hux kept his face blank and hoped that Kylo was hiding any feelings of anger or trepidation that were unavoidably boiling up in his head.  “This is… highly irregular,” said Tho, still not speaking mind-to-mind, perhaps out of stubbornness now. 

Well, too bad: Hux could be stubborn, too.  As the bastard son of a powerful man, stubbornness had often been all he could rely on.  Not pausing too long to consider whether or not Kylo had picked up on that thought, Hux modulated his voice into something professional and said back, “Is it unacceptable?”  He raised and eyebrow that was deceptively mild, but leaned into the tentacles a little bit, and thought _very clearly_ that if it was not acceptable, then Tho would get no connection to Hux _at all_.

The tentacles around Hux’s head rippled and this time he was sure Tho’s dark eyes narrowed.  Good - he knew what he was dealing with.  “It is… acceptable,” Tho said with obvious reluctance.  However, his hand squeezed down again as if to make his displeasure known one last time, and Hux had to grit his teeth against the bruising feel of it.  At least the remaining hands were minding their own business, either braced on the decorated cane or hanging loosely. 

Then Hux heard a voice in his head, and it felt so different from any intrusion of Kylo’s that he sucked in a startled breath.  He couldn’t really feel it, per se, but suddenly he had sounds and images in his head, which took a split second to organize themselves into a format his brain was able to process.  After that, he had to admit that Kalyksekkens were indeed much more articulate in their mental language. 

Isben, who’d been doing a good job of being quiet thus far, finally spoke up tentatively, “What did he say?”  He’d been standing closer to Hux before, but apparently the Kalyksekken’s encroachment had driven him back.  Hux resisted the roll his eyes at Isben’s spinelessness, thinking about how the pathetic little man wasn’t someone he’d ever want to have with him in a fight - both Ren and Isben were annoying, but at least Ren was good for something.  Hux sucked in another breath and clenched his jaw against a new ripple of pain as he felt Kylo’s presence shifting in his head, reminding Hux unpleasantly that his privacy had been doubly invaded.  However, he also got the sense that his last thoughts - while viewed by Kylo, for better or for worse - had also been safely tucked away before Tho would view them.  

Pushing down the headache as best he could, Hux unclenched his teeth and carefully verbalized the ideas that Tho was sending him.  

And thus negotiations began again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go! ^_^ It should be posted in a day or two, and we'll get to see exactly how much Hux can tolerate... and perhaps how much Kylo Ren can tolerate, too...


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux's head was not meant to be party to two telepaths...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's also a bit of Kylo's POV at the end here ;) And murderous amounts of snark, because Hux's main defense mechanism (when he can't shoot anyone) is snark.

One the surface, things improved drastically.  Kalyksekkens really did communicate better on a nonverbal level, their minds able to develop ideas in ways their mouths and vocal cords struggled to - and, if Hux perhaps sensed some snideness or rudeness, he could edit it out before speaking to Isben.  Hux couldn’t censor Isben, of course, but thankfully the human ambassador behaved, taking advantage in this breakthrough in negotiations. 

All it was costing them was the present dignity and sanity of one of their captains.

Hux was doing his best to maintain the former, having clasped his hands behind him again and made the conscious decision to maintain his posture with merciless rigidity.  Instead of focusing on the migraine in his head or the tentacles meandering with increasing freeness across his face, Hux focused on holding his body perfectly still - and, of course, on translating.  The translating was the easy part.  Keeping his internal screaming from becoming external screaming was a lot harder. 

By this point, Hux could only hope that that damned Jedi was doing his job and not simply melting the inside of Hux’s skull for fun - because while it didn’t seem like Tho was hearing anything save the occasional, pointed thoughts that Hux sent his way for clarification purposes, Hux honestly didn’t have enough concentration to do a thorough mental check.  He’d gone foggy from pain within the first ten minutes; actively distracted by it in fifteen.  Whereas he’d at first been grateful for the pain to distract him from the tentacles touching his face, the situation was now reversed, and sometimes the only way to keep himself from being overwhelmed by pain was to be startled by a wet, suckoning touch to his forehead.  He was well aware that neither were good options.  Hux had already gone past the point where he wanted to just shoot everyone in the room to the point where he just wanted to curl up in a ball and black out. 

Outwardly, though, he showed as little as possible.  His eyes were half-lidded in an expression designed to look inwardly attentive but actually allowed him to unfocus his eyes and spare himself the undulated grossness that was Tho’s face; his tone was flat and deadpan, something that he’d actually perfected for when he had to deliver bad news to Supreme Leader Snoke.  It was a tone of voice that minimized damage, mostly to himself.  He only twitched when Tho got particularly explorative - such as when one tentacle streaked along his cheek and into his ear.  As much as he didn’t want to reveal a weakness, Hux did jerk his head back a bit then, and directed a stern (but hopefully polite) thought Tho’s way, making it clear that human ears were sensitive.  Tho sent back an overly obsequious apology, and Hux was left thinking that he’d just handed over a weapon that the alien would undoubtedly find a way to use later.  While Tho was being very careful in what he was sending over into Hux’s head, the captain was nonetheless able to pick up on the Kalyksekken’s canniness and coldly strategic mind.  Hux had been good at identifying monsters like himself from an early age, so it was stupidly easy, really, to confirm that Tho was demanding this telepathic link less because he needed to and more because it was a way to manipulate his opponents.  

That thought made Hux grit his teeth stubbornly and push back harder against the fogginess and the pain.  Hux (and probably every member of his family that he’d ever met) had a mean streak a mile wide, but he also had a competitive nature that could get just as scary, and now it was well and truly riled.  ‘ _I’ll drop dead before I give you the satisfaction_ …!’ he thought viciously, forgetting for a moment that he was sharing minds with the entity he was mentally snarling at.  

Surprisingly, though, it was Kylo’s voice that answered him, even as Hux felt a sort of muffling presence in his head that seemed to indicate Kylo blocking off parts of Hux’s mind from Tho.  ‘ _Maybe save those thoughts for later, Captain_ ,’ came Ren’s voice.  Rarely did Kylo ever address him with any respect, so Hux’s mind went momentarily blank with surprise as he tried and failed to quantify that statement.  The fact that Kaylo was essentially telling him to calm down didn’t register.  For awhile after that, Hux merely translated on reflex, barely hearing what was being said whereas before he’d occasionally stepped in to bring up points of his own.  That took energy he didn’t have so much of now. 

It felt like the negotiations went on forever, and Hux told himself that that was normal - negotiations were rarely swift things.  But _damn_ , he wished this was going more swiftly…  It was getting harder to stand upright, much less stay still, and it felt like his skull was about to split open; even Tho’s telepathic presence was starting to define itself as a new kind of ache, the images and ideas bouncing around in a brain that was already stressed.  A detached part of Hux wondered if he could get brain damage if he continued this.  He only floated away from that thought and back to reality when he realized that he’d closed his eyes - and also that Tho had started tentatively petting his hair.  Since a fascination with bright, red human hair had started all of this, it felt like this was an inevitable conclusion, and Hux narrowly stopped short of releasing a resigned sigh.  The sensation was hardly more sickening than every touch that had come before it, and Hux finally decided just to give in and keep his eyes closed.  Open, he would be unable to ignore the fact that Tho had moved closer so that basically each of his facial tentacles were within touching distance.  It made his skin crawl, and at some point Tho had brought up another hand to Hux’s other shoulder… a tentacle furrowed his hair while another ‘forgot’ Hux’s comment about ears and came up to stroke the shell of Hux’s left ear like a string of curious, wet, chilly mouths…  Hux was vaguely aware of translating something even as he withdrew further into his head as his body became less inhabitable. 

“This is over for today.”

For a moment, Hux thought that those words had come out of his mouth, but the voice sounded wrong.  Then he’d thought it was something in his head that he needed to translate, because he’d certainly felt a tremor go through his skull along with the words, and it sounded like Ren.  Confused and struggling to coral his thoughts, Hux blinked open his eyes and frowned, even as he felt his balance waiver.  He barely recovered it, and hoped that no one noticed - specifically, the Kalyksekken delegation, whom he was still determined to get the better of.  

The speaker was definitely outside of Hux’s head, and the deep tones resolved themselves recognizeable into Kylo Ren’s voice as they continued, “We need time to consider your offer in private.”  

‘ _Why the hell are you interfering_?’ Hux wanted to snarl, but the words didn’t make it out of his head.  In fact, he felt as if someone were wrapping his brain in a too-hot blanket; it was not quite painless enough to be called comforting.  Hux did manage to turn his head, though, and glare over his shoulder when he saw Kylo striding up to them like the cocky bastard that he was.  Glaring was the only repercussions Hux was up to at that moment, however, as he began to feel how drained and exhausted he was.  Tho’s tentacles were sliding off his head as well, which was a blessing too wonderful to question.  Hux’s entire face still felt slimy and disgusting, but he felt less like he was being molested by a cephalopod. 

Hux still tried to fight off the fog in his brain and demand what the fuck Ren thought he was doing, stepping in and making decisions like this, when Isben unexpectedly stepped up to support the Jedi, “Agreed.  You’ve given us much to think on, Ambassador Tho.  We need time to relay this to our superiors.  Can we meet with you again after we have conferred?”

While Hux tiredly thought about how Isben was a spineless traitor and Kylo came to stand close enough that Hux could have punched him (if he’d been able to turn around and face him… or life his arms), Tho retreated fully.  He was obviously reluctant to let go of his new ‘toy,’ but since his new toy was now incandescently furious, it was probably for the best that they part ways.  “This… is acceptable,” the Kalyksekken once again spoke aloud, its words enough to make Hux flinch after having his head filled with the alien’s language.  “We shall meet you here... in one cycle’s time.”

While Hux waiting for Isben to accept that, Kylo interrupted, “No.  That’s not long enough.  Three cycles’ time.”

“Ren-” Hux started to snap at him, but the Jedi put a hand on his shoulder then and his telepathic presence doubled with the contact.  Hux had no choice but to cringe and wince, hating the show of weakness but unable to think or speak for a moment past the bubble of pain that felt like it rose and burst in his head.  It ebbed after a moment, but they then, Kylo had clearly asserted his authority in the conversation - and Isben, the bastard, was for some reason siding with him. 

Ambassador Tho seemed to be taking it surprisingly well.  All limbs to himself again, the alien was regarding Kylo curiously.  “You’re the telepath,” it guessed eventually, no discernable query in its voice, only certainty.  

Kylo didn’t answer, but didn’t look away either.  Hand still on Hux’s shoulder (hot as a brand compared to Tho’s cold grip) and expression set in that dangerous look he often got right before doing something stupid, Kylo looked like a barely-leashed storm. Hux couldn’t understand what had made him so mad, but felt the need to direct a thought at _Kylo_ this time, ‘ _If you attack the Kalyksekkens and fuck up this negotiation, I will tear your throat out with my own teeth_.’  Considering all of the pent-up emotion that Hux had right now (and how at least three-fourths of Hux’s functional emotions tended to look like anger anyway), it was clearly a heartfelt threat, and it actually made Kylo jump and turn horrified eyes to Hux.  Hux met the look with his best ‘ _Underestimate me; that’ll be fun_ ’ look.

“Three days.  And your… captain’s return,” Tho acquiesced unexpectedly, and this time Hux was able to speak first.

“Deal.  Thank you for your patience, Ambassador.”

“Thank you, Captain-” replied Tho, entirely too patronizing again as he flourish four hands in a little bow that brought his tentacles too close to Hux’s face again.  He felt Kylo closer at his back and thought he heard a low growl.  “-For your involvement.  We could not have… made this progress… without you.”

Entirely sick of hearing that sibilant voice weather it be smoothed out in his head or awkwardly spoken aloud, Hux merely nodded and turned.  He absolutely refused to sway, and slitted his eyes against the pounding in his skull.  “Get out of my head, Ren,” he growled under his breath.  He tried to sound commanding, but it just came out sounding cranky and tired. 

He could feel it when the Jedi immediately retreated, although Hux knew from experience that the headache would linger.  Hux grimaced and tried to wipe off his face with his sleeve, frowning more as he saw the slimy mess on his dress uniform.  In no mood for formalities now that they were leaving, Hux reached over and grabbed Ren’s cloak to finish the job.  Ren made a strangled little noise but was smart enough not to try and stop the redhead.  

Once his face was clean and they were back with their little party, Hux avoided everyone’s eyes but Kylo’s rounding on him.  “ _What_ do you think you were doing?” he hissed, aware that this wasn’t the best time or place for a lecture, but fearing that he wouldn’t be able to hold it together until they were in private.  Already he wanted nothing more than something for the pain and to sleep for a year.  He grabbed a fistful of Ren’s shirt and pulled his ridiculously muscular self closer to snarl with quiet fury, “You could have ruined everything, do you realize that?  You still might have.”

Kylo looked like he was struggling between emotions, his eyes narrowed and his mouth working a few times before he snapped back angrily, “But you looked like you were going to collapse!”

Hux felt himself flush with embarrassment, but instead of admitting to the validity of that statement (and that he still felt a lot like he was going to collapse), he shoved his face closer to Ren’s and retorted coldly, “Then you should have let me collapse.”  Not wanting to make a bigger scene than they already had, Hux let go then, and spun on his heel to leave.  He missed a step as his brain protested the sudden movement, but regained his footing stubbornly, and lead the way out. 

The outside sun nearly poleaxed him, but he pushed through it.  As he’d said, he wasn’t here to be comfortable.

Although when Kylo jogged up to him and handed him his hat back, Hux grabbed it with a gruff thanks and shoved it on his head, hiding under the sparse brim.

~^~

The trip back was done in tense silence, and Hux couldn’t be bothered to care.  It was perhaps even a small silver lining that his head hurt too much for him to properly remember the flight back; he wasn’t flying and his orders weren’t needed, so it was an acceptible arrangement.  He was vaguely aware of Kylo watching him the whole way, but figured that it was just the Jedi memorizing every aspect of Hux’s current condition: emotionally ruffled and physically unkempt with his hair a mess (both from Tho’s touch and from the outside humidity), and definitely knocked down a peg or two… or ten.  Kylo was probably trying not to orgasm at the sight, and Hux promised himself to never look this weak again.  Ego bruised nearly as badly as the rest of him felt to be, Hux stayed stubbornly at attention through the short flight back to _Thunderkite_ and didn’t let the facade fade even as Isben tentatively suggested Hux go see a medic - because it looked like he might be having a bit of a skin reaction to the Kalyksekken’s dermal secretions.  

Because that was just the kind of luck Hux had.

~^~

Hux hated doctors and was told that he was an atrocious patient.  When he was in pain, he was worse.  After briefly turning _Thunderkite’s_ medical facilities into a warzone, Hux stormed off to his room - still in a haze of pain that had now spread to his skin, although he’d been assured that his allergic reaction wasn’t life-threatening.  The medications he’d taken for both his headache and his new and annoying skin condition weren’t kicking in fast enough, but from past Jedi-induced headaches he’d suffered, Hux had come to expect it.  The fact that this migraine had come from far longer exposure to telepathic intrusions in his skull just made him madder.  Pretty sure he’d lose his mind anyway before he got any relief, Hux got into his rooms, turned the lights off, and only barely managed to drag his clothes off before reaching the sonic shower.  He ended up sitting on the floor of the stall, shaking legs refusing to hold him any longer.  Realizing that he was in danger of falling asleep here, he eventually dragged himself back to his feet, wishing that _Thunderkite_ had actual, water-based showers - he wondered if that would make him feel cleaner, because right now, he somehow still felt dirty.  He kept feeling shadows of slimy flesh suckering onto his skin, and while a look in the mirror told him that the rash was gone, his skin still ached, and he had bruises blooming deeply on his right shoulder from where Tho had gripped him.  Grim-faced, Hux reminded himself that he’d gotten worse bruises from Snoke; this was nothing.  He dragged on some loose pants before collapsing face-first onto his bed.  Pulling up the blankets took too much effort.  But at the same time, he was still in too much agony to fall asleep, a predicament that made him want to sob and scream at the same time.  

And he’d have to go back and do all of this again.  In there days.  Hux groaned into his pillow. 

When he heard the polite chime of the door to indicate someone asking for entry, he snarled “Fuck off” without lifting his head.  

Of course the door opened anyway.  

Hux snarled again as the lights came on, although they quickly dimmed again to a sort of subdued twilight that was at least tolerable.  The intolerable thing was, Hux recognized Kylo’s voice commanding the lights even without turning his head to identify the intruder.  “Go away, Ren,” he growled without any real energy to back up the threat in his voice.  If anything, defeat was what he felt settling in, because there wasn’t a damn thing he was prepared to do about the Jedi in his room.  Hux considered at least lifting his head, but honestly, it would probably be better if he didn’t look.  That way, he could at least be blissfully ignorant for however long it took for Kylo to… do whatever it is he’d come here deciding to do.  “Whatever you want, you can demand it later.  And if you want trouble, then fucking save it, because-!”

“Hux, take it easy, all right?  I’m not the enemy here,” Kylo interrupted him with exasperation coloring his deep voice.  A deep voice that Hux would have honestly admitted he liked the sound of, if he weren’t paranoid that he’d have that thought in his head the next time Kylo decided to practice mind-reading - like with the lightsaber incident.  Hux made a patently disbelieving snort in response to Kylo’s statement and turned his head so that he wasn’t suffocating himself with the pillow but was still facing away.  Maybe if he ignored the Jedi long enough, he’d get bored and go away.  Hux certainly wasn’t interesting prey right now, right…?  He suddenly found himself unexpectedly close to tears as he thought that last question, his anger turning brittle and shattering under the continued weight of exhaustion and pain. 

He must have made a small sound - maybe a whimper - because Kylo’s footsteps drew nearer, as did his voice.  “Hey - hey, it’s all right.  Hux-?” 

Hux stubbornly forced his whine to become a growl as he felt the bed next to him depress, no doubt as Kylo sat next to him.  The growl became a hiss of pain, however, as Kylo’s hand landed on his bruised shoulder.  As Hux cringed and Kylo let go as if burnt, the lights were also turned on a fraction brighter - no doubt to satisfy Kylo’s curiosity, because a few seconds later and Hux heard a low whistle.  “What the f-?  Hux, your shoulder is nearly _purple_.”

“The bacta the nurse gave me will help,” Hux snapped back, not sure if he was complaining, defending himself, or just making excuses.  Still lying mostly on his belly, he rose up enough to reach down for the blankets, planning to hide under them-  But the tiny chance in altitude had his head throbbing fit to burst, and he subsided with a wounded noise, panting.  

Kylo, surprisingly, stayed silent the whole time, although his nearness was radiating body heat against Hux’s hip.  “Hux-” he started again after a moment, voice softer than before.

Recognizing the start of pity when he heard it, Hux pressed his eyes shut and dragged in a steadying breath, realizing that he’d have to talk now unless he wanted the pathetic pity of a Jedi, “I went to the medics, and they gave me something both for the pain and for my allergic reaction.  The bruising is nothing I haven’t had before.  It’ll all fade.”  He paused, then added pointedly, chancing a narrow-eyed glare over his shoulder, “It’ll fade faster if I’m _left alone_.”

That was how Hux always coped: Injured?  Find a private place to safely lick one’s wounds.  Emotionally compromised?  Find a soundproofed room where no one would hear you scream it all out for awhile.  Feeling weak?  Stay out of sight until the strength came back, so that no one could tell that you even had a soft underbelly.  

Right now, he was pretty sure that his metaphorical soft underbelly was on full display, and it both frustrated and frightened him, because nothing in his past with Kylo Ren had reassured him that the Jedi would treat Hux’s vulnerability with respect.

“Go away, Kylo,” he whispered, but balanced out the quietness of his voice with bared teeth.  It was the best he could manage at the moment. 

The sound Kylo made in response was a cross between a sigh and a growl, and Hux was still looking over his shoulder to see the Jedi look away moodily.  He didn’t say anything, but he also didn’t do as he’d been told and leave, which perhaps Hux should have expected; Ren was pants at following orders.  Just as Hux was trying to scrounge up the energy to speak again, though, Kylo spoke, “How badly does your head hurt?”  It was spoken lowly and quickly, and Hux had to take a second before he comprehended what had been said.  By then, Kylo - face in profile - had turned one eye to him, looking uncomfortable.  His full mouth was turned downwards in a frown, which Hux met with a more bewildered frown of his own.  “I said-” Kylo started to repeat after a moment of awkward quiet.

Hux cut him off automatically, “I heard you.”  He braced himself to turn over, because he was getting a crick in his neck from peering over his shoulder.  He grunted as he tried to get his aching body to move, “I just don’t have the faintest idea why you’re asking.”

“Because you run this ship,” Kylo grumbled back, petulant as ever, although at least he sounded as off-put by this conversation now as Hux was.  It got weirder, though, as Kylo haltingly went on, “And because… well…”

Hux really didn’t want to move.  He at least managed to get his head turned in Kylo’s direction, though, arms under his pillow and body tensed as he rode out the latest wave of his migraine.  “Because what?” he prompted. 

Kylo was a lot bigger than Hux, a fact that he was quite aware of, but their present positions made the size difference even more obvious: in sitting on the edge of the bed, Kylo had really put himself quite close, and his dark clothing made Hux’s pale, bare skin stand out terribly.  The uncomfortable way that Kylo kept glancing at him and then away again, however, made him seem less intimidating.  In fact, he almost looked worried.  “Because I’m the reason you’re in pain!” he finally bit out.

For a moment, Hux could only blink in surprise, the fog of pain having nothing to do with his brains momentarily inability to compute that sentence.  After a long moment of just staring and blinking beneath raised brows, though, Hux’s sarcasm at least managed to reboot itself, “Oh, so _now_ you feel bad for all of your telepathic invasions?”

“Look, I didn’t-”

“Didn’t realize that your telepathic fumblings resulted in migraines?  Sorry that I didn’t make my pain obvious enough.”

“Dammit, Hux, will you just shut up and let me apologize?”

The shock of that did indeed have Hux snapping his mouth shut, even as the increased volume had him wincing a little.  For once, the pain came second to his surprise, however, as he blinked up at Kylo’s frustrated expression.  The Kedi looked pretty peeved, but for once that anger didn’t look like some sort of shallow temper-tantrum.  Silence achieved, the anger faded again to embarrassment, and Kylo smoothed a hand back over his hair, catching at the strands not restrained in the half-tail he kept it in.  “You… You hide pain really well,” he said, and if Hux weren’t mistaken, it sounded like he was being complimented a bit there, “And I…  I didn’t realize what I was doing.”

Hux stared at him for a minute as if he’d grown a second head.  “Bullshit.”

Kylo made a face and admitted, “Okay, fine, I knew what I was doing.  But I feel bad about it now, all right?”

“Because seeing me in a little bit of pain is fine, but a lot of pain starts to prick at your conscience?” Hux couldn’t keep his bitter sarcasm in check anymore, now that he’d started.  Sharp words were his best defense when he wasn’t in any state to punch, shoot, or court-martial someone, and he was still desperately hoping to drive Kylo away with words. 

But Kylo merely huffed out an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes, apparently growing inured to the verbal barbs.  “No, because what you put up with today was insane, and I’ve never been inside your head for long enough to realize that you put up with shit like that all the time just because the Order tells you to.”

Hux was so startled that even his defensive snark wasn’t able to come up with a reply.  He’d managed to lift his head a bit, but all that probably did was make his staring that much more obvious, as he failed to come up with any response for that.  

Broad shoulders finally relaxing, Kylo went on, “Now will you let me help you?  Because I actually came here because you left medical before they could give you this-”  He lifted a hand to reveal a small container of something no doubt medicinal.  “-And I was voted most likely to come out alive after talking to you.”

‘ _Perhaps I need to work on hiding my temper more_ …’ Hux considered, flushing pink and clearing his throat self-consciously.  He couldn’t voice a retort, however, because the past ten minutes of snarking had just proven everyone’s point.  Sagging back against the bed, he hugged the pillow tight to the bottom half of his face.

Kylo, perhaps reassured that he wasn’t about to get his head bitten off (again), went on flippantly, “Seems you ran out of there before they could give you this.  Apparently it works a bit like bacta, but will help with the allergic reaction more.  Did you wash all of that… slime… off yourself?”

Hux couldn’t suppress the full-body shudder at the memory.  “Yes,” he murmured simply.  The pillow muffled his words, but by the nod of Kylo’s head - and the unexpected softening of his dark eyes - he heard.  And maybe even understood. 

“The doctor said to put this on your skin then.”

Which meant sitting up, but by now, the fight had gone out of Hux.  It seemed, miraculously, that Kylo wasn’t here to ruin him for once - or take advantage of his weakness - so Hux stopped wasting energy on defensive mechanisms and instead focused on moving.  He managed it with the minimul amount of groaning, and only almost tipped over once.  After he got himself into a sitting position, legs crossed in front of him, he had to close his eyes and just breath for an interminable amount of time, though, as his brain felt like it swelled inside of his skull.  It subsided before his skull exploded.  Surprisingly, Kylo didn’t rush him, or in fact say anything.  When Hux got his eyes open to pained slits, however, and he reached for the container, Kylo pulled it back.  “You might want to let me do this,” the Jedi opined, and when he got a sharp look, he raised his free hand in a calming gesture. “It’s a cream, so unless you want to walk over to a mirror, you’re going to have a hard time rubbing it onto your own face without getting it everywhere,” he explained.

Glancing over towards the bathroom and its mirror, Hux briefly considered the effort it would take to walk there… and immediately gave it up.  That wasn’t happening.  Sighing out a breath that felt like it had been dredged up from the pit of his stomach, Hux’s shoulders slumped and he closed his eyes resignedly.  “Fine,” he muttered.  He meant for more anger to go into that word, but all he had left was dull apathy. 

By the way Kylo paused, that probably worried him.  Good.  Hux hoped that apathy scared the shit out of him, because apparently Hux’s anger didn’t phase him much.  

Hux did brace himself quietly, though, as he heard the lid being quietly unscrewed, and smelled a faint herbal scent in the air.  He knew that he was going to be touched, and considering all of the unwanted touch he’d been getting today, he wasn’t looking forward to it.  He must have tensed up more than he realized, because the next thing he knew he was hearing Kylo saying quietly, “It’s okay.  Let me know if any of this hurts.”  Getting comfort from Kylo Ren, of all people, was surreal in the extreme, but right now Hux was willing to take it.  He didn’t respond or move in any way, but after another beat of nothing but their twinned breathing, Hux felt the first touch to his face.  

He hissed in a breath at first, the slick quality of the cream immediately jogging recent, sickening memories.  Hands fisting in the material of his trousers, he felt his heart-rate and breathing ratchet up, worsening the throbbing in his head.  Almost as soon as he registered the uncomfortable slickness against his skin, however, he registered the warmth - where Tho had been cold, Kylo Ren was warm, almost hot.  And he was soothing, “Shh, shh, easy.  It’ll feel better if you just let me rub this in, Hux.”

This was not normal; Kylo Ren was _not_ comforting.  The only explanation was that Hux did indeed have a brain injury after today, and all of this was a hallucination.  However, it was a rather nice hallucination, so the redhead decided not to fight it.  If he focused on the warmth of Kylo’s hands, the rough texture of his calluses, and the way the Jedi muttered to himself from time to time as he worked, Hux was able to remind himself that he wasn’t with Tho anymore, being touched by slick tentacles hungry for a taste of him.  He shuddered a little as he pulled loose of that memory, finally accepting what he’d been ignoring: that Tho had instigated that entire situation because he’d wanted to show dominance in some ostentatious way.  Perhaps it had started out as a relatively innocent fascination with Hux’s red hair, but Hux had seen enough of Tho’s mind to know that it had become more sinister than that.  The Kalyksekken had wanted to dominate the nearest available ranking officer.  

“Apparently sadism is universal,” Hux found himself murmuring without realizing that he’d given his mouth permission to speak his mind.  His head was still one big ache, and it was hard to tell what was echoing _out_ side of it and what was knocking around _in_ side of it anyway.  

Kylo paused in his movements, one hand under Hux’s jaw to presumably keep his head still while the Jedi’s other hand rubbed cream into his temple.  The massage there felt so good that Hux had leaned into it a bit, hoping that his neediness wasn’t noticeable.  It was unbecoming for a captain of the First Order to be needy.  

“Are we talking about the Kalyksekken ambassador?” Kylo tested the waters after a moment.  He went back to work again, but his voice was low, almost dangerous.  It reminded Hux of the murderous way that Kylo had looked at Ambassador Tho earlier that day.  

“We could be talking about you,” Hux couldn’t help one more stab, then softened his voice and sighed when he actually felt the Jedi flinch, “Or, honestly, me.  But yes, I’m actually referring to Ambassador Tho.  I had a feeling he was going to be a manipulative bastard.” 

Perhaps there might have been a time when Ren would have been startled by his captain swearing, but apparently that time had passed.  Kylo still had one hand cupping Hux’s face on the right side, but his left hand was rubbing down towards Hux’s neck in a way that would have been threatening on any other day.  Now it just went into the increasingly full basket of ‘things Hux could not categorize right now.’  “Why did you agree to his demands then?” Kylo asked in a voice that had managed to drop impossibly lower.

Hux pried his eyes open, even though the faint light of the room was enough to make his head throb.  He needed to make eye-contact for this glower.  “Because I will do whatever is necessary to get the job done,” he stated the obvious.  

Or what should have been obvious.  Kylo looked startled for a moment before his expression settled into something resigned.  “You’re ten kinds of crazy, you know that?” he muttered, breaking eye contact and getting more cream on his fingers.  Before Hux could explain to him that he wasn’t crazy, he was _determined_ , Kylo changed the subject, “I’m going to spread this on your ear, okay?  So sit still.”  So far as tones went, it wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, but it felt like things were a bit more normal this way, with Kylo speaking in a bossy, curt tone.  Perhaps that was why Hux gave in and obeyed without another word, only giving a huff for appearance’s sake as his head was turned and he felt the first touches against the base of his ear.  He winced even though it didn’t hurt, because recent memories stirred again.  Kylo didn’t say anything in response, although his broad hand curled a bit more firmly around Hux’s chin, and his other hand seemed to move a bit more carefully.  In fact, the touch became gentle enough that Hux closed his eyes again, conserving energy.  The pain was starting to fade, albeit at an incremental rate. 

Hux had zoned out enough that he’d barely noticed Kylo spreading the cream down the side of his neck, nor gently shifting to the other side, always keeping one hand cupping Hux’s jaw.  Hux fidgeted a bit when he felt his other ear being touched, but by now the warm massaging of Kylo’s hands was honestly rather pleasant.  He hoped Kylo didn’t get into his head and read that, because he wasn’t ready to admit that out loud.  

By the time Kylo finished, Hux was about ready to tip over, although his various aches and pains were now down by one: his skin didn’t feel sore, just his shoulder and his brain.  That small relief was just about enough to have him asleep sitting up, although he scrounged up some more alertness when Kylo spoke again, “Hey, I want to try something.”

Lifting his head (Kylo wasn’t supporting it anymore, which suddenly seemed like a crime), Hux raised one eyebrow.  “You realize that that statement has never really boded well in the past.” 

Kylo made a face at him.  “Stop being difficult, Hux.”

Hux just made a growling noise at him, lacking a better answer to expresion his general, directionless discontent.  It was less of a threatening growl this time, though, than just a grumpy one. 

Expression going from exasperated to intent, Hux leaned forward a bit to look up from under his eyebrows at Hux.  He spoke with more earnesty than Hux was used to, “So you know that the Force Jedi use is good for levitating things, and for mindreading-”

“Yes, I’m _well_ aware of that,” Hux drawled, eyes narrowed against the persistent headache.

The ‘are you fucking serious?’ expression was back.  “Can you cut the fucking sass for just one minute?  I’m trying to explain here.”

Hux quieted, but only because he was too drained to do much else.  Draping his arms over his crossed shins, he settled down to listen.

Perhaps Kylo had been braced for more argument, because his brown eyes widened a bit and he actually looked less sure of himself in the absence of snarky backtalk.  Looking away, the Jedi cleared his throat, absently wiping a hand on his pantleg as if to get any remnants of cream off it.  “First and foremost, having the Force means… being aware of the life around you.  Being able to see it.  The energy,” he went on awkwardly, “And it’s by manipulating that energy that we Jedi can do the things we do.”  Only then did he glance back at Hux, a worried line forming between his brows.  “Your energy… is messed up.”

‘ _A lot of me is messed up_ ,’ Hux wanted to deadpan, but decided to mutter instead, “What a flattering thing to say. This is exactly why you and I don’t get along.”

“Hux…!” Kylo growled again.  He looked away once more and dragged a hand back through his hair, catching in the tie and ending up tugging it out impatiently.  His hair looked softer this way, but also wilder, as he let it fall freely around his scowling face.  “Why do you have to be so damned difficult?”

“ _You_ are the reason I have to be _so damned difficult_ -!” Hux shouted back, only to realize what a monumentally bad idea shouting was.  He cut himself off with a groan, clutching his head. 

“Fucking redheads and their fucking tempers,” he thought he heard Kylo grumble, even as he felt big, warm hands over his, pressing heat into his wrists and the back of his hands, helping hold his pounding skull together.

Hux hissed out because it was reflex, “...Stereotypes.”

“Yeah, whatever,” was the responding grunt, followed by Kylo shifting further onto the bed, and before Hux knew it, they were sitting cross-legged across from one another.  “We’re going to meditate, all right, and you’re going to let me smooth out your energy,” Kylo said in a voice that brooked no argument.  “And you’re going to tell me if anything hurts, because I already feel guilty enough.”  The last sentence was no less commanding, but perhaps a bit more petulant at the end. 

Hux was still trying to understand why his brains weren’t running out his ears when they felt like the should be.  He massaged his temples hard.  “Everything already hurts.”

“Yeah, well, this might help with that a bit, too,” Kylo replied with a bit less steel in his voice than before.  He pulled Hux’s hands away from the sides of his head and brought them down onto his knees instead.  “Keep your eyes closed, all right?”

Just because of that, Hux cracked one eye open.  “Why?”

“Because I feel stupid when I do this,” was the remarkably candid answer, matched by a rueful expression.  Kylo’s hands released Hux’s wrists, pausing for a moment of uncertainty.  Catching the fact that Hux was still blearily eyeing him, Kylo glowered, but then seemed to give up, sighing.  He raised his hands, letting them come to rest over Hux’s wrists again - but this time not touching them, a few millimeters space separating their skin.

Hux frowned.  “What are you doing?”

“What I said I’d do.  Helping.”

“You’re not good at helping,” Hux sniped because he couldn’t help it.

Surprisingly, instead of just getting mad, Kylo showed an amazing amount of maturity in simply meeting his eyes and replying with only some frustration, “I helped today, didn’t I?  You told me to keep that alien out of your head and I did.”  Kylo’s hands were still hovering, but had now moved from Hux’s wrists to his forearms, even as the Jedi himself maintained eye-constant and said more quietly, “It wasn’t easy either.  That’s the longest I’ve ever held a telepathic connection without physical contact.”

Despite himself, Hux was a bit impressed - and belatedly a bit horrified, because it had never crossed his mind that Kylo would tire and fail at any point, thus leaving Hux exposed to Tho.  He was a bit humbled by the determination expressed now in Kylo’s eyes, and that more than anything had Hux actively trying to tamp down on his snarkier responses.  All that was really left underneath that was tiredness, but it was the best he could do.  “Your assistance was greatly appreciated,” he said, quietly and stiffly.  He glanced down so that he wasn’t having to look into dark, intense eyes anymore, instead watching the slow journey of Kylo’s hands.  He frowned as he realized that he could feel… almost like a humming between Kylo’s skin and his.

“Can you sense anything?” Kylo asked, a bit hushed himself.

“A… tingling.  Nothing more.”

“I’m manipulating your energy a bit with the Force - not a lot,” Kylo hastened to assure, and Hux’s shoulders - which had started to tense - relaxed again.  Kylo’s hands continued on up Hux’s bare arms, and even in the dim lighting, Hux could see how the small, pale hairs on his skin stood on end as they were passed over.  “If you feel dizzy, say something, okay?”

Kylo sounded remarkably sincere about checking in on Hux’s well-being, so the captain did the only decent thing he could do, and nodded his agreement.  Silence followed.  Hux fixated on a small scar on the tanned skin of Kylo’s left wrist, even as both of the Jedi’s hands rose up towards Hux’s freckled shoulders.  Something about the gesture was becoming soothing - like being stroked, but not touched.  Hux had been touched enough today, and this felt like Kylo respecting that, in an odd way.  Hux shivered. 

“Okay?”

“Still okay,” the redhead answered quietly.  The pain in his shoulder grew muffled and dull as Kylo’s hand glided over it, pausing with long, strong fingers spread.  Hux closed his eyes, savoring the small, new absence of pain. 

By the time Hux’s hands came up alongside his head, just barely brushing a strand of hair or two, Hux was held upright only by his elbows propped on his knees.  He couldn’t have opened his eyes if he’d wanted to.

“Is the pain fading at all?” Kylo asked in a whisper that barely brushed against Hux’s eardrums.

Hux had to inhale to collect his thoughts, and sighed on the exhale, “It is.”  It was leaving him feeling detached and weightless, his brain unsure what to do with itself now that it wasn’t bogged down in agony.  He felt a bit hollowed out at the lack of it, as if some part of his identity had been drawn away - but in a good way.  If that were possible.  

Kylo’s low rumbled was pleasantly grounding, “You can go to sleep if you want.”

The only answer to that seemed to be “Okay,” and Hux didn’t remember any more.

~^~

Hux had always seemed like force of nature, an entity no less intimidating as the lightsaber Kylo carried.  Sometimes it felt like Kylo had to crack Hux open from time to time, just to remind himself that there was a human being underneath and not a droid.  Even then, Captain Hux was one scary sonofabitch - perhaps even more so, because professional-Hux never threatened Kylo’s life quite as colorfully as angry-Hux did.  Even mindreading that Hux found his lightsaber sexy hadn’t dimmed his healthy fear of the captain, because it took a scary kind of person to be attracted to something as dangerous as Kylo’s training routine.  

There was nothing scary about Hux now.  

Kylo sat again at the side of the bed, just watching as the captain breathed in and out at a slow, steady pace.  The redhaired man had keeled over some time ago, exhaustion finally getting the better of him, far later that it would have gotten the better of bigger, stronger men.  Looking now at Hux curled atop the sheets, naked to the waist with ribs flaring shallowly against pale, freckled skin, Kylo noted how physically unimposing Hux was - making his accomplishments all the more incredible. Quite frankly, Kylo was a bit bewildered as to how such a small man could be so intimidating.

And how he could withstand so much.  Without consciously deciding to, Hux reached out, fingertips just barely ghosting over Hux’s left shoulder.  The captain, out cold, didn’t react, but through the Force Kylo imagined he could still feel echoes of the pain.  These were deep bruises.  And Hux had taken them as if he had practice at it.  That thought made Kylo unaccountably angry, but as it often went with his anger, he couldn’t define its source.

He ended up putting both his hands in his lap again and just watching the slack contours of Hux’s face as he slept.  The captain looked younger this way.  Literally and figuratively disarmed.  The flesh and bone beneath was lean but breakable… but perhaps not so breakable as Kylo had believed up until now.  

Kylo reached out again and stroked a hand over Hux’s hair, needing to forcibly erase the memory of the Kalyksekken dragging an appendate over the same spot like a tongue across prey.  And Hux had just stood there and taken it, because the First Order needed access through this part of space.  Kylo hoped that the First Order appreciated Hux for this, because if this wasn’t going above and beyond the call of duty, he didn’t know what was.  

Hux stirred a little in his sleep, lips parting slightly and head nudging up under Hux’s hand before settling into sleeping stillness again.  The anger in Kylo’s chest transformed into a fierce protectiveness almost without him noticing the change.  Both emotions burned hotly and selfishly - perhaps because a bit of possessiveness had always been tangled up in both.  

Kylo had shed his cloak at the door, but now he got up and went to fetch it.  Hux was on top of all his bedclothes, too exhausted to care that the room was cool.  Well, Kylo still had the energy to notice and care, so he strode forward and draped his cloak over the captain’s pale form.  Hux pursed his lips and made a small, interrogatory noise in his sleep, but once again didn’t rouse.  Exhaustion wasn’t ready to let go of him, and Kylo wasn’t surprised, considering what he’d watched Hux endure - and not only watched with his eyes from across the room, but with his mind, from inside the battlefield of Hux’s head.  

“I can’t believe you agreed to do that again,” Kylo growled under his breath, even as he tucked the cloak up around Hux’s chin, not asking where the mothering instinct had come from so suddenly.  He focused instead on his disbelief over the captain’s decisions.  “That six-armed slug doesn’t want to negotiate - he wants you on your _knees_.”  An idea that, in the past, Kylo perhaps would have laughed about.  Now, though, he felt that mixture of anger, protectiveness, and possessiveness burn hotter yet.  It was different when it was someone else messing with Hux; it was also different now that Kylo knew just what kind of man Hux was.  Kylo had seen a pompous, stiffnecked asshole who just liked to control everything; now, after sitting in Hux’s head and watching how rigidly Hux controlled _himself_ , he realized that he’d been wrong.  

Well.

Sort of.  

Hux was still a pompous, stiffnecked asshole with control issues, and he was still mean as fuck, too - all things that drove Kylo insane.  But Hux was all of those things _for good reasons_.  Kylo had seen a lot in Hux’s head; a lot that he was sure Hux hadn’t meant him to see, but had decided was worth it in the name of protecting First Order secrets.  Hux was so tough (or insane) that he was clearly willing to sacrifice just about anything to get the job done.

And Kylo had to respect that, even if he found that he didn’t like the repercussions.  Just the thought now of Ambassador Tho getting his appendages all over Hux - again - had Kylo’s rage rising to scorching levels, and a few things in the room began to shudder.  

Breaking Kylo free from the cycle of anger was a small whine, almost inaudible.  Kylo stopped glaring at the middle distance and instead blinked and looked down at Hux, who thrashed weakly in the throes of something subconscious.  Hesitating for the first time, Kylo nonetheless reached out with his telepathy - but carefully this time.  He placed a hand on Hux’s brow, easing carefully into his mind, and this time hoping that it went unnoticed instead of hoping to unsettle the iron fortification of _Thunderkite’s_ unshakable captain.  Hux still stiffened and mewled in his sleep, and Kylo mouthed an apology even as he got a glimpse of what was broiling in Hux’s thoughts: _a sickly slick carress to his cheek, corpse-cold… tiny, suctioning kisses that he'd never asked for…_

Kylo felt the growl in his own chest, and withdrew from Hux’s head to instead hover both hands over the captain’s head, tanned fingers just ghosting above russet hair.  Hux’s life force was a powerful tangle of knots, weakened by exhaustion, and Kylo had never focused on something so fully in his life. 

A pass of both his hands from the crown of Hux’s head to one tensed shoulder, and Hux relaxed with a sigh, silent again.  Kylo didn’t need to get into his head to know that the nightmare had been destroyed, and the Jedi felt quite proud of himself about that.  Hux was always such an island, and Kylo had never felt like he could do anything for the man - even when he was ordered to, it somehow felt like he wasn’t needed, and that the captain could have survived very well on his own if necessary.  In a way, today had shown Kylo that Hux did, indeed, need help like any other person… the surprising part was that he liked Hux better now that he knew that. 

Well, if Hux really could use help now and again, Kylo could do that.  

Certain now that Hux was in a deep and restful sleep and was likely to stay that way, Kylo stalked from the room.  He was going to find Ambassador Isben, and they were going to have a _chat_ about how they could complete this mission without having to resort to prostituting their captain.  If that chat included Force-choking, well… Kylo would call it ‘motivational speaking.’

~^~

Nearly twelve hours later and Hux woke up suddenly.  Nothing in particular had woken him, but for a moment he just sat on his bed, blinking in the dimness and trying to figure out how he’d slept without dreaming… and also why he was draped in Kylo’s cloak.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is at and end :) I don't plan to continue it, so I'll leave it to the imagination just how badly Kylo intimidates Isben, or whether Kylo sits on Hux to keep him from visiting Tho again... One way or another, you can be that this sets the tone for any future cooperation between Hux and Kylo, because while they still probably hate each others guts, they at least respect one another now. Mostly. Sort of. In a very secretive sort of way. I hope everyone enjoyed my first foray into the Kylux fandom! It was very fun on my end <3


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